August 26, 2020

For decades, clothing designers, magazine editors, and photographers at publications like Vogue decided what the fashion world would see and how they would see it. Although models received plenty of opportunities to pose in front of the cameras, they got almost no say in the decisions that were made behind the scenes. That started to change as social media platforms like Instagram gave models direct access to audiences, granting them more individual power over the creative direction of their brands. Continue reading

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August 18, 2020

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has forced countless companies around the world to come up with new ways to sell products or else risk going out of business. For instance, many bars and restaurants have made the switch to carry-out service and installed take-out windows to easily access waiting customers. For some lucky Italian entrepreneurs, though, their businesses come with built-in to-go kiosks constructed more than 500 years ago.

Known as “buchette del vino,” or “little wine holes” in English, these Continue reading

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August 17, 2020

With hundreds of American movie theaters closed since March, the film exhibition industry has made several attempts to return to business only to reverse course soon after. AMC Theatres, for instance, announced plans to reopen on July 15th but scrapped that idea as coronavirus cases spiked across the U.S. Despite these setbacks, though, the nation’s largest theater chain has now set August 20th as its return date. What’s more, AMC plans to charge just 15 cents per admission on the Continue reading

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August 13, 2020

In recent years, banks across the country have either phased out coin services or started charging fees for counting change. At Community State Bank in southeastern Wisconsin, for instance, the institution usually charges non-customers a 10 percent service fee for coin counting. But that certainly wasn’t the case a few weeks ago when Community State Bank had to beg people to bring in spare change to offset a coin shortage that has developed during the pandemic. 

In fact, the Continue reading

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July 23, 2020

Since thousands of concert venues around the world remain closed due to coronavirus, many artists have taken to social media to stream live performances. These innovative concerts draw in huge online audiences but are no replacement for the revenue generated by live shows. This video looks at how the music industry is hoping to earn cash from unorthodox venues, such as drive-in concerts and video game tie-ins. 

Questions:

  1. Do you think virtual events in video games like Fortnite could Continue reading
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Over the last few weeks, restaurants and retailers across the country have gradually reopened with limited capacity, plexiglass barriers, and other anti-Covid restrictions. According to a recent study of the review site Yelp, however, approximately 140,000 listed businesses that closed in March remained shut down in June. What’s more, 41 percent of those companies have closed for good. Retailers accounted for the highest number of closures at 27,000. Coronavirus lockdown measures also majorly hurt restaurants, with 53 percent of closed Continue reading

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June 18, 2020

Tomorrow is Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. Although few major companies observed this day of remembrance in the past, many are now correcting this mistake in response to the protests that have been going on for weeks in cities across the country. Firms like Nike, Mastercard, Target, and Twitter recently announced that Juneteenth will become a paid holiday next year. Best Buy offered employees a “paid volunteer holiday” they can use this upcoming Continue reading

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For weeks, thousands of people across the country have been protesting against police violence following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th. In response to these historic events, many companies have voiced their support for the fight against racism on social media. Adidas, for instance, released a statement on Twitter expressing how the sportswear brand was “deeply saddened by what we see happening to our black community in America.” The company even retweeted an advertisement made by Continue reading

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Before the coronavirus pandemic, takeout and delivery orders made up just a small portion of total sales for most restaurants. With countless customers now homebound, though, to-go business has never been more important for eateries across the country. Many restaurants use apps like Grubhub, Seamless, or DoorDash to handle delivery orders, but these services come with quite a few problems for all their convenience. Besides signing up companies that don’t offer delivery, food startups have also deceived restaurants and Continue reading

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In early March, the movie studio Universal had already spent millions of dollars marketing its upcoming title Trolls World Tour in anticipation of its April 10th release. When the coronavirus pandemic shut down theaters across the nation, though, Universal made the bold decision to release the movie through on-demand platforms like Apple TV and Amazon. The gamble paid off handsomely for the movie studio: after three weeks on the market for $20 per rental, Trolls World Tour brought in more Continue reading

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